Inspiration From Book Review: Base Area Construction Is The Foundation Of Victory

By Zhuang Yumo

"The army and the people are the foundation of victory". This simple aphorism put forward by Comrade Mao Zedong in his 1938 "on protracted war" is an important summary of China's revolutionary experience and an important part of his thought. In January 1934, Mao Zedong pointed out in his article "care about the people's life and pay attention to the working methods": "what is the real iron wall? It is the masses, millions of people who wholeheartedly support the revolution. This is a real iron wall, which can't be broken by any force. It can't be broken at all. " The formation of soldiers and the emergence of millions of people who sincerely support the revolution have their special conditions and foundation, that is, the construction of base areas. Without the construction of base areas, it is very difficult to form a "real iron wall" in the process of mobile operations. It is also very difficult to carry out guerrilla or mobile warfare to lure the enemy in-depth, and to carry out in-depth mass work and mass mobilization.

The formation of revolutionary base areas is the basis for the formation of soldiers and the people, and therefore the basis for victory. The Enlightenment of spark: the establishment and development of revolutionary base areas written by Jin Chongji, a famous historian, selects a number of typical base construction cases from 1927 to 1949, as well as the historical stage of the transformation from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare. It makes a deep analysis and exploration in simple terms, and reveals the connotation of the important experience of China's revolutionary victory in the construction of base areas.

Enlightenment of spark

Dialectical relationship between base area construction and mobile warfare

Before the long march of the Red Army, the construction of the Central Red Army base area experienced two stages. The first stage was the construction of Jinggangshan revolutionary base area, and the second stage was the construction of the southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian bases, namely the construction of the Central Soviet area. The social and economic conditions in Jinggangshan can not support the increasing number of supplies of the Red Army. Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the troops to attack the southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian areas to open up new bases. These are the reasons for the two stages.

In the Jinggangshan period, the Red Army has already had the initial experience of base area construction, that is, the Red Army is deeply rooted in the local people. It not only enables the army to represent the interests and requirements of the masses, but also has a continuous source of supplement like a snowball. However, before the Gutian Meeting, many key members of the Red Army had not fully realized the importance of this experience, which was an important background for many debates and discussions in the Red Army at that time.

Jin Chongji focused on the famous debates among the Fourth Red Army. At that time, some views held that "the theory of striving for the masses first and then establishing political power in all areas of the country" was held. Mao Zedong made a serious criticism on it. He held that this view only supported the guerrillas in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, and did not have the "profound concept" of establishing a red political power in these areas, There is no profound idea that the deepening and expansion of the red political power will promote the climax of the national revolution, which is not suitable for the situation of the Chinese revolution.

Mao Zedong's reply pointed out the fundamental difference between guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare based on base areas and guerrilla warfare without support《 The Enlightenment of spark quoted Xu Qianqian's memories to analyze that once the army leaves the base area and can not get the support of the regime, it will face serious difficulties. Among them, the deepest feeling is the problem of eating, such as "beggar beggars", where the troops go and where they want to go“ Because we have no political power, we can't raise food and raise funds smoothly. It is very difficult to solve the problem of dressing, eating, medicine and equipment for tens of thousands of troops. It is not easy to mobilize the masses. When the troops are present, they mobilize the masses, but as soon as they leave, the masses are scattered. Like flowing clouds and flowing water, we can't lay a foundation. " When conditions permit, the establishment of the people's own political power is of great importance to the establishment of a consolidated revolutionary base area, which is quite different from the guerrilla areas.

Jin Chongji analyzed the phenomenon that the Red Army attached importance to both guerrilla and base area construction: on the one hand, after the Fourth Red Army went down to Jinggang Mountain, it moved to southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian, and its scope of movement was quite wide, and its stay in some important areas was not long. Not to mention the long march. During the war of resistance against Japan and the war of liberation, there were examples of maneuvering thousands of miles. On the other hand, we should take it as an important principle that the party and the Red Army must adhere to. Practice has proved that this is indeed a very important guiding principle.

The Enlightenment of the spark makes a comprehensive and in-depth discussion on this contradictory phenomenon. Opposing the idea of roving bandits does not mean opposing mobile operations under any conditions. During the period of the Red Army, the transition from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare has already taken place. Neither "wandering" nor "moving" is generally opposed to mobile warfare. In the face of the great disparity between the enemy and ourselves, the fact that the party and the Red Army have not taken root among the local people, and the terrain and economic conditions are not favorable, we should not blindly stick to a certain area, otherwise we will fail. To oppose the idea of roving bandits is not to oppose mobile operations in general, but to emphasize that we should strive for flexible and mobile operations based on the construction of base areas.

The border struggle of combining military work with mass movement

The construction of revolutionary base areas is a comprehensive action related to all aspects. For example, in choosing which areas to establish revolutionary base areas, we need to consider where the enemy forces are relatively weak and where there are more contradictions, where there are conditions to provide more abundant supplies for the Red Army, and better terrain support for guerrilla and mobile warfare, etc. But the most fundamental is the formation of the mass line, the political line for the construction of base areas. Without the political line of mass line, it is difficult to win even if the selected area provides space for survival in the gap.

When the Communist Party of China launched the armed struggle in 1927, the party and its leading groups were very young. The formation of the mass line and the balance of the relationship between the army building and the mass movement were explored in the process of bloody struggle, with both victory and failure experience. During the first great revolution, the young party put its main force on launching and leading the vigorous mass movement; For some time after the Nanchang Uprising and the August 7th conference, it was still emphasized to organize armed riots by workers and peasants everywhere, and the role of the formal army under the leadership of the party was not taken seriously. The construction of Jinggangshan base makes the party have a new understanding of the party leading the army. However, another one-sided situation emerged during this period, that is, attaching importance to the role of the army and neglecting the mass movement, mass mobilization and organization. Comrade Mao Zedong has done a lot of work to overcome this tendency.

Jin Chongji pointed out that by the late Jinggangshan struggle, Comrade Mao Zedong had a fairly complete understanding of the relationship between the existence of a formal Red Army with considerable strength and the need to attach great importance to mass work, so as to prevent one sidedness from turning into another. The struggle on the border is entirely a military struggle, and the so-called separatist regime must be armed. However, the Red Army is not simply fighting, but also shouldering the task of doing a good job in mass work. In the instruction given by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the front Committee of the Fourth Red Army in August, it pointed out the fundamental difference between the Red Army and the roving bandits. "The Red Army is not only an organization for fighting, but also plays a more important role in propaganda and Politics... The guerrillas of the whole red army should be more fully responsible for mobilizing the masses to carry out the agrarian revolution and building the Soviet regime, Whoever will lead the Red Army to the bandits and bandits. " Gutian Meeting pointed out the method of combining military struggle with mass work and established the systematic thought of building the army. Therefore, it became an important meeting in the history of the party and the army.

There are many ways to combine military work with mass movement. Accordingly, during the revolutionary war, there were different levels of military organization, including the main force, the local armed forces and the Red Guard. This kind of mutual cooperation and complement is an important feature of the people's army.

Choice of key cases

During the 28 years from the founding of the party to the founding of the people's Republic of China, there were many revolutionary bases《 The Enlightenment of spark "selects the southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian Soviet Area, the armed separatist regime in the border of Hubei and Henan, and Shandong Anti Japanese base as the key cases, and analyzes the different characteristics of the construction of base areas in different periods and regions. The choice of these three cases is more accurate, and pays attention to describe and analyze the development and construction of these base areas from the overall perspective, presenting the main issues of base construction in a more comprehensive way.

The development and development of Shandong Anti Japanese base area is typical in the Anti Japanese base area. Before the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, Shandong's Party organizations were seriously damaged and had no base areas. However, at the time of the Japanese invasion and the collapse of the Kuomintang regime, the northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Eighth Route Army (8th Route Army) quickly sent backbones to the rear of the enemy and developed large-scale base areas, which withstood the test of the Japanese army's sweeping and the Kuomintang's attack. In the process of development, Shandong Anti Japanese base area promoted the exchange, exchange and integration between the Eighth Route Army officers and the local Party members and cadres in Shandong Province, which provided an important basis for the dispatch of troops to the northeast and the development of the East China Field Army in the early stage of the liberation war.

The key to the formation of revolutionary base areas lies in the fact that the Communist Party of China and the army under its leadership have formed deep feelings with the masses through the mass line of "coming from the masses and going to the masses". In this kind of community structure with the same heart of the army and the people, the basic logic of behavior is not to maximize the individual interests, whether it is the military officers and soldiers, or the party and government personnel, or the ordinary people.

The basic economic policy of the revolutionary base areas is land reform, which is a great change to break the structure of exploitation and oppression in rural areas and provide the basis for the economic autonomy of every rural people. Its ideological basis is the Marxist Leninist economic thought represented by the capital and the ideological tradition of China's pursuit of equality. China's current rural land system is based on the land revolution, which is one of the most important basic systems for China's sustainable development and the maintenance of the Communist Party of China and the people's deep love for each other. Understanding the basic experience of the construction of revolutionary base areas is helpful for people to understand the institutional basis of contemporary China.

(the author is a professor at the Institute of culture, Capital Normal University)

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